HP EliteBook 8540p

Introduction

This is a short guide to running Linux with the HP EliteBook 8540p laptop. It is tested with opensuse 11.2 Emerald. Almost everything works out of the box, except NVIDIA drivers (though easily done with one-click install) and wireless (latest compat-wireless-2.6.34 are needed). They can be put to work. The fingerscan reader does not work.

This page is just for discussing using Linux on the HP EliteBook 8540p. For a general discussion about this laptop you can visit the HP EliteBook 8540p page on LapWik.

Linux Compatibility

The appropriate NVIDIA drivers should be installed, is done swiftly (1-click install)

HDD

Yes

Optical Drive

Yes

Graphics

Yes

works with Xorg 1.7.6 drivers and NVidia proprietary drivers

Sound

Yes

input (microphone) need to be set to the right input channel

Ethernet

Yes

kernel 2.6.32, didn't work in 2.6.30

Wireless

Yes

latest iwlwifi module from compat-wireless (2.6.34) should be installed

Bluetooth

Yes

not tested thoroughly. Managed to tether blackberry successfully over BT

Modem

Not Tested

USB

Yes

all five work

Firewire

Not Tested

Card Reader

Yes

Tested with SD card 4 Gb

ExpressCard Slot

Not Tested

Fingerprint Reader

does not work

It works also not in windows on some machines (dual boot win 7)

Webcam

Yes

Fn-buttons

Yes

The Fn buttons initially do not work. You have to set the behaviour manually. see Discussion below

Notes

- I run openSuse11.2 on this laptop (i5-540M). I had some issues with the wireless (the RF_KILL parameter was set to 2, meaning the device was disabled by something outside the driver's control). To solve this, I have disable wireless in Windows (as dual boot), made sure that in the BIOS settings (press esc upon boot) the wireless is enabled, and installed the latest compat-wireless (do not use from the opensuse repositories, but use tar.gz directly from compat-wireless website).
- Hotkeys do not work
- An annoying 'buzz' sound most of the times when I shut down.

Summary

After setting up opensuse11.2, I am very pleased with the performance - though the wireless caused some troubles, it is working now. However, hotkeys do not work properly. Also the screen brightness cannot be set, something rather useful to have in power management. Apparently, the screen hardware is not supported in the gnome power applets.

Hibernate / Suspend

When the XHCI module is loaded for USB 3.0 operation the system cannot suspend. Manually unloading XHCI will allow suspend to complete normally. To avoid future suspend problems, the workaround is to add:

SUSPEND_MODULES="xhci_hcd"

to /etc/pm/config.d/unload_module then the system can suspend normally. NOTE : “_” and “-” are synonymous.
This method should be prefered over USB3 fix below

You have to save it into a file in the /etc/pm/config.d/ folder, let's say you call this file unload_module.
Put executable rights to it:

sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/config.d/unload_module

Suspend/Hibernate needs a USB3 fix. Script taken from Adamohere
This script simply unload the xhci kernel module upon hibernate/suspend, and loads it back upon resume.
Create a script file with this content:

You have to save it into a file in the /etc/pm/sleep.d/ folder, let's say you call this file 01fix_usb3.
Put executable rights to it:

sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/01fix_usb03

…and that's all!

Function Keys

Screen Brightness

The fn+f9,f10 keys (screen brightness/backlight) can be enabled by editing /usr/share/hal/fdi/information/10freedesktop/10-laptop-panel-hardware.fdi at line 27 so that it reads:
match key=”/org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/computer:system.hardware.product” contains_outof=“8540p;4410s;4415s;4416s;Compaq 5×5”
then reboot.

Dual Monitor - Docking Stations

In order to change video modes upon connecting additional displays (or disconnecting) you should user disper and auto-disper to automatically change video modes.

Suspend and Hibernate were fixed by creating the script noted on this page.

and

Wireless was not working but I fixed it by:#sudo modprobe -r iwl3945#sudo modprobe iwl4965

Hope it helps :)lolziac

meowsqueak, 2010/12/08 21:58

Occasionally (every few days when laptop left on constantly), the wired ethernet interface fails. It can be easily recovered with a 'modprobe -r e1000e; modprobe e1000e' but it is pretty annoying as all existing network connections (ssh, sshfs, skype, etc) are all affected. Does anyone have a solution to this? Kernel 2.6.35-02063502-generic.

meowsqueak, 2011/01/13 21:25

I upgraded to the 2.6.36 kernel from the kernel-PPA and this problem appears to be resolved.

If you are still running 2.6.35 and experiencing this problem, a simple 'modprobe -r e1000e; modprobe e1000e' seems to bring the interface back to life.

meowsqueak, 2010/11/04 19:48

Sometimes my machine fails to wake up from a suspended state. The row of illuminated 'indicators' lights is lit up, but unresponsive to touch, the screen is blank, and kernel magic-sysrq combinations do not actually work (I reported they did in August but now I'm not convinced they did anything). The only thing to do is hold the power button and power-cycle the machine. Then, without fail, the next time it boots the wireless interface will be non-operational, requiring a suspend then wake-up to resolve.

@masticator - were you seeing a similar problem? Did recompiling the iwlagn drivers have any effect on this?

Wolfgang Groiss, 2010/10/31 08:21

To get suspend/hibernate working on my 8540p, the usb driver fix given above was neccessary.

In addition, the notebook had its display backlight turned off after resume, so all i got was a black screen. To get rid of that, I followed the advice given in comment #2 (and #9) in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pm-utils/+bug/417599:Having “have_kms()” just return 1 in /usr/lib/pm-utils/sleep.d/98smart-kernel-video

for kernel 2.6.32 and 2.6.33, the kacpid process seems to run constantly on one core, reducing battery time and making the laptop quite hot. To disable this, add this to /etc/rc.local:

echo disable > /sys/firmware/acpi/interrupts/gpe01

there may be an issue involving the DVI port on the docking station. I was unable to get a picture on a connected monitor. The fix involves capturing EDID info and referring directly to it in xorg.conf, but I haven't tried this yet.

on some of the models, there is a nasty sound emitted briefly from the speakers on reboot.

Tux, 2010/09/06 17:02

With 2.6.34-12-desktop/#1 when I echo disable into gpe01, it gets back to enabled immediately. I see the same as you do.

What I also see is an extremely slow eth0 if connected to a 100Mb hub. When connected to a Gb HUB speed seems OK.

Tux, 2010/09/11 07:17

with 2.6.34.4-0.1-desktop/#1 all above problems are gone.

one mystery remains: The middle button(s) do not generate any event, not even in xev.

I will also have to investigate if suspend to RAM and/or suspend to disk now workj as expected

meowsqueak, 2010/09/06 20:18

DVI issue was a red herring - problem was with DVI cable. Replaced cable and had no further issue.

jojovilco, 2010/09/07 19:45

Hi, in your post you mentioned: “on some of the models, there is a nasty sound emitted briefly from the speakers on reboot”This is exactly my case. Do you by any chance have ideas or hints how to get rid of it?

meowsqueak, 2010/09/07 22:17

@jojovilco: unfortunately no, I am not aware of a fix at this time. If you find one, please post here.

masticator, 2010/09/28 07:44

The shutdown beep happens when pressing the shutdown button. I have found that it is a system sound (rather loud IMO) to warn, because pressing the shutdown button is a kind of hard kill of all processes. It used to be configurable, but it isn't anymore.

I had this all working until today when I suspended, undocked, brought it home from work and it failed to come out of suspend properly (blank screen). I had to do a magic-sysrq-S/U/B and now when it boots up the wireless is not working. According to iwlist, lshw -C network, and nm-tool, the interface is detected OK, but it's “disabled” or “asleep”.

Any idea how to re-enable the wifi adapter? The 'button' on the illuminated strip doesn't seem to do anything except change colour.

meowsqueak, 2010/08/20 08:51

Just to follow up - I was unable to find a software 'fix' for this, but I did get my WiFi back by simply suspending/waking-up again.

masticator, 2010/09/28 07:46

I have had success with just compiling the iwlagn drivers again from Compat Wireless latest stable release.

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